Sunday Devotional – Knowing Too Much
And I set my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is grasping for the wind. For in much wisdom is much grief, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow. ~ Ecclesiastes 1:17-18 NKJV
If you’ve lived long enough (past the age of immature rebellion, which is different for every person – I’ve known some very mature 10-year-olds, and some very immature 50-year-olds), you’ve come to the point where the more you know, the less you realize you actually know.
We think, at times, that surely we’ve seen the worst evil that can be, and then the next day or the next week there is something on the news that shocks us more.
We writers are doing the impossible task of conveying all of these things with words.
Do you know how hard that is?
If you’re not a writer, if you’ve never felt the urge that you absolutely must tell this story to someone, be grateful. For us writers, this a compulsion. We must tell these stories, even if it is only to one person. But the more we learn new characters, new worlds, new struggles, the more we become aware of how much grief is involved with it.
When we gain wisdom and knowledge, it means that we’ve experienced much in life. Sometimes gaining wisdom can only be done through making mistakes, or observing other’s mistakes. Either way, that can be a very painful, emotional process. For us writers to convey emotion, that means we have been required to feel it at some point in our lives. The more we know about the world around us, the more we see the effects of evil and sin on the world, the more we grieve.
Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grived in His heart. So the LORD said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. ~ Genesis 6:5-8 NKJV
But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away . . . ~ Matthew 24:37-39a NKJV
Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, Who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen. ~ Jude 24-29 NKJV
I remember watching episodes of G.I. Joe as a kid, seeing good triumph over evil, and being reminded at the end of the cartoon show that ‘knowing is half the battle.” As a kid, I just thought it was a cool statement, especially since I was a nerd who was sort of weird to others because i liked learning. But it wasn’t until I grew into a more mature me that I realized that knowing was just a piece of the battle, and as you said, I learned more and more how much I really didn’t know.